


For A Sister's Sake

by GinnyBloomPotter



Series: Tumblr Requests [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: But it's there, Canon Compliant, Child Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I only tagged major characters, Kid Fic, Minor Injuries, Pre-Season/Series 01, Sort of? - Freeform, Unethical Experimentation, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, everyone else is mentioned though, good brother Luther, it totally could have happened, it's not graphic or anything, takes place when they're kids, vanya deserves better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 17:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18721456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBloomPotter/pseuds/GinnyBloomPotter
Summary: Based off of a Tumblr request from Anonymous!Number One liked to think that, at seven whole years old, he knew exactly what his role was in this world. One night, he sees something that challenges that.





	For A Sister's Sake

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this request: "I have a fic Request for Child Vanya&Luther Instead of suppressing Vanya’s power, Reginald decides to experiment with it (or on Vanya rather) One night, Luther hears strange noises coming from the basement, and when he goes to investigate, his admiration for his “father” is shattered by what he finds, and he realizes that his role as leader of the UA has also prepared him for a different role: The protector of his siblings, even from the very one who gave him this role."
> 
> May not be exactly what they were hoping for but I hope you and everyone else enjoys it!

Number One liked to think that, at seven whole years old, he knew exactly what his role was in this world. He had to listen to his father, and obey orders, and above all else, protect his family. 

Protect Number Two, even when he tried to fight him, protect Number Three, even when she used her powers to make him leave her alone, protect Number Four, who was innocent and naive and too sweet and too trusting, protect Number Five, who always insisted he was fine, protect Number Six, even if the monster in his chest did a pretty good job of that, and protect Number Seven, who was powerful, but weak and tiny and even sweeter than Number Four and would probably let herself be snapped like a twig if it meant she didn’t have to hurt anyone. 

She hadn’t always been like that, Number One remembered. He had a pretty good memory, or so Mom told him, and he remembered when she used to use her powers and lash out when she didn’t get her way. Then, Father had one of his “serious talks” with her, one of the ones that he never got, but she did all the time, and Number One wasn’t sure what happened, but he knew Father made sure Seven understood what it meant to hurt people, and after that, Seven never hurt another person ever again. (At least, not on purpose.)

Number One knew that they were all the same age, but he also knew that all of the siblings still thought of him as the oldest and Seven as the the youngest, and they all had this rule that they’d protect her, because she was the littlest and needed it, and also because they knew that she’d protect them if she needed to, even if it did mean hurting people.

So yeah. Number One knew a lot of things. 

What he didn’t know was why he was hearing banging coming from downstairs at midnight.

He spent a whole entire minute trying to decide whether or not to go downstairs and check it out, but he decided that it might be an intruder and got up a quietly as he could, following the noises down to a room he’d never thought existed before.

It was cold and big, he noticed, with blank metal walls and no decoration, aside from shattered vases and rubble that once must have been boulders and glimmering glass dust lining the walls. And there, in the center of the room, was his father and little Number Seven.

She was wearing headphones and a look of great pain, and he was watching with delight as he continued to twist a dial on a machine the headphones were connected too. The air around his sister shimmered with her barely contained powers, and her hands were bloody where her nails had bit into her palms. 

Before he realized what he was doing, Number One was calling for his father to stop. 

“She’s in pain! Stop!”

Reginald Hargreeves stood, his delight morphing to rage, and Number One suddenly understood why Four, Six, and Seven always looked at him in such fear.

“Number One! How dare you leave your bed without permission!” Father snapped. He didn’t make any move to turn off the device, however, a fact that made One quite upset. 

“I heard noises and thought it was an intruder,” Number One argued. “Why won’t you turn off the device? It’s hurting her!”

“And how dare you question my methods!” 

One shrunk back from the criticism, but then he caught sight of tears glimmering on Seven’s face and a hint of blood trickling from under the headphones, and any illusion that his Father was doing the right thing shattered. 

He wasn’t sure what happened next, just that he saw red and then, suddenly, Father was unconscious on the floor, his fist hurt, and he was pulling the headphones away from his sister’s head. He tossed them onto the ground, then stomped on them, trying to stop the high pitching wailing he could now hear from the device. It took a couple of tries, but he succeeded, and a blissful look overtook his sister’s face. 

“Are you okay?” He asked her quietly, but she didn’t respond, eyes closed and hands covering her bloody ears. 

He was angry, he realized as he took in Seven’s pain. Angry at his father, which was a very new feeling. He wasn’t sure he was comfortable with it, but he’d always thought Father’s methods, while perhaps cruel, were necessary, and now he was looking at the situation and wondering in what world would it ever be? How could it be necessary to do this to your own child-- to any child? To little Number Seven, so sweet and quiet and compliant and eager to please? 

She sniffled, and he gently reached out to help guide her out of the room, and to Mom. He hated to interrupt her recharging cycle, but Seven had yet to respond to a single one of his questions, only whispering out a hoarse “thank you” before falling completely silent, and her ears were still bleeding, and her nose was now too, and she was still crying and he didn’t know what to do.

Nothing in their father’s training could have prepared him for what to do when the person he had to protect his siblings from was him. 

It was times like these when he wished their mom was more human, wasn’t just programming, because she was business-like in treating Seven, and refused to admit that their father had done something wrong, even when she admitted that his sister’s hearing might be damaged permanently. When he thought about it though, he really wasn’t sure what he wanted her to say-- usually, the reassurance that his father was a good man would have been enough to make him see the best of the situation. In that moment, though, all it was doing was making him even more angry. 

How could what One had seen be the actions of a good man?

He needed a plan, he thought. Father was going to wake up eventually, and he’d be mad. Number One’s first instinct was to run away, to take Seven and go far, far away from the Academy, but that brought up questions like “what do I do with the others-- can I really just leave them here?” and “how do we survive on our own?” and “how can seven seven-year-olds go unnoticed?” (Because in the end, he knew he’d never leave everyone else at home.)

He fell asleep holding onto Seven’s hand at her bedside before he’d finished trying to answer the questions. When he and his sister woke up, it was to his father, standing with Number Three in front of him.

Number One didn’t have time to warn her to stay away from their father before she was speaking. 

“I heard a rumor you both forgot about everything that happened last night.”

* * *

Number One liked to think that, at seven whole years old, he knew exactly what his role was in this world. He had to listen to his father, and obey orders, and above all else, protect his family. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to do something that wouldn't veer into AU territory that would take me into a multi-chapter fic I wasn't prepared to take on. This is already AU enough, with everyone knowing about Seven's powers, and I might expand this into a separate universe after I finish my current multi-chapter, but for now, I wanted to ensure that they'd stay home. It's a sucky ending, I know, but I hope it's cute enough as is. 
> 
> Also, don't blame Allison too much. She doesn't know what happened, only that her father wanted her to "help" and told her this would do it.
> 
> Let me know what you thought!
> 
> Requests? Let me know on Tumblr! @tardisbadwolfrose


End file.
